AUBURN, Wash. — Using DNA technology, investigators have identified a victim of the Green River Killer almost 40 years after the victim was last seen.
While using forensic genetic genealogy testing on bones, they were able to develop a new DNA profile. They concluded and identified the victim as Lori Anne Razpotnik.
According to a release from King County Sheriff’s Office, in 1982 Razpotnik ran away from home when she was 15-years-old. Her family never saw her again and contacted police.
On Dec. 30, 1985, officers in Auburn were called to investigate a scene where a car seemed to have gone over an embankment near the 2000 block of Mt. View Drive. Inside the car, investigators found two sets of human remains labeled “Bones 16” and “Bones 17.”
The Green River Killer, Gary Ridgway, was convicted of 49 murders in 2003 and led investigators to this location. He admitted placing two bodies in that location in 2002, but their identities remained a mystery.
In 2012, investigators were able to identify “Bones 16” as Sandra Majors through DNA testing.
For “Bones 17,” investigators used Parabon NanoLabs to conduct forensic genetic testing. This lab was located in Reston, Virginia and is a vertically integrated DNA technology company.
Parabon NanoLabs develops “next-generation forensic and therapeutic products that leverage the enormous power of DNA.”
Investigators did extensive research with Parabon to find out that “Bones 17” belonged to Lori Anne Razpotnik.
King County detectives asked Lori Anne’s mother to provide a saliva sample to do a DNA comparison. The University of North Texas conducted the test to confirm that the remains belonged to Lori Anne.
Throughout the 1980s, Gary Ridgway terrorized and evoked fear in the state of Washington. He was convicted of killing 49 women but he has confessed to 71 murders, but investigators believe that he killed more.
At his sentencing in 2003, he referenced the women who had not been found or identified by saying, “[to] the ladies who were not found, may they rest in peace. They need a better place than where I gave them.”
Ridgway is currently serving life in prison at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.
